


Falling Stars

by theleafpile



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angel Wings, Desert, F/M, Fanart, Fluff, I needed to write something happy, Lightbringer, Romantic Fluff, Season/Series 03, Stars, its so fluffy I'm gonna die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 02:32:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12571788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theleafpile/pseuds/theleafpile
Summary: Lucifer may be the Devil, but that doesn't stop his light-bringer power from building. Over time, he's found a way to safely dispel it.This time, he invites Chloe along to watch.





	Falling Stars

“She laughs!”

Chloe avoided looking at her partner in that moment, concentrating on the movement outside the window as she drove, completely oblivious to where she was supposed to be going.

“Sometimes,” she said, smiling, “I don’t even need to abuse alcohol to do so.”

She rolled her neck to glance at Lucifer, who grinned back. Slowly, it faded, and he was looking at her with that particular _something_ in his eye. It didn't show through often, but when it did, she always wondered what it was.

“The road, detective, if you please."

She returned her attention to the lonely roadway ahead of her. “We’re in the middle of nowhere, Lucifer,” she reminded. “The only thing I’m gonna hit out here is a tumbleweed. Or another Leo.”

“Leo?” he questioned, rolling down the window and closing his eyes against the sudden onrush of wind.

She snorted a little at the memory, the elaborate coffin Ella had prepared for the little creature. “Never mind.”

Lucifer hummed in response, falling quiet, the ghost of a smile playing on the corners of his mouth. They drove in silence for another long stretch, the midday sun beating down on the cruiser and everything else, baking the ground and drenching the flat landscape in bright light.

Every so often she’d glance at her partner, but he seemed lost in his thoughts, his eyes still closed. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was asleep, but every once in a while she’d catch more of a smile from him, and she elected to let him have whatever was making him happy to himself.

It wasn’t alcohol, drugs, or sex, so that was probably as good as it was going to get.

“You ever going to tell me where we’re going?” she asked again, breaking his strange reprieve. The glare of the sun creeped behind them until she had to avert her rearview mirror, the orange light slanting across her face as they rushed forward, toward the ever-growing night.

“Nope,” he said, popping his lips. Finally, he opened his eyes, offering her a coy grin.

“It’s been hours.”

“And your patience is remarkable.”

“I’d consider that a compliment, if it weren’t coming from Mr. Short Attention Span.”

He wearily lifted a mock-offended hand to chest, letting his mouth fall open. “Right where it counts, detective."

She laughed, and he looked at her like that again.

 _Like he's surprised,_ she decided.

“What?” she asked.

He lifted a shoulder, but otherwise didn’t answer. He fell silent for a few more minutes, watching the blanket of night fall ahead of them, the deep purples and blues of twilight, dotted with stars.

He stretched his long legs as far as they would go, groaning at the lack of space, and leaned back once more, closing his eyes.

“You’re like a baby,” she teased.

“Baby?” he repeated, indignant.

“If you needed a little night ride to fall asleep, I would’ve liked to know ahead of time.”

He chuckled lightly. “No, detective. I’m merely waiting.”

“For?”

He didn’t answer, and she stifled a yawn. After a few moments, she leaned forward to look more closely at the night sky. His eyes flew open and he jolted upright, leaning against the door in one, swift movement that nearly had her steering them off the road. “Here,” he exclaimed, patting the door and leaning his head out the open window to look up.

“Lucifer!” she chided. “Get back in the car!”

But he was already lifting himself onto the frame as she slowed. He leaned back, gripping the top of the door and laughing. She spied a good place to park just ahead, and grabbed the pocket of his pants to hold onto some part of him before he fell right out the door.

“C’mon, detective,” he laughed, popping his head back down. He smiled, breathless and disarming, and she found herself elated just watching his child-like happiness.

She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen that on him before. His happiness was always – _always_ – clouded by some sort of darkness, like he was happy in _spite_ of something, not _because_ of it.

“Get back inside until I park, you –”

But he was already swinging his long legs up and out before the car rolled its last few inches to a complete stop. She threw it in park and was undoing her seat belt just as Lucifer opened her door, bowing and holding his hand out for her to take.

She looked at it, swinging a leg out. He shook it, encouraging her to take it.

“Live a little,” he reminded her.

She took it and was immediately swept away from the car and into the dark, desert night. She scrambled to keep up with his pace as he dragged her deeper into the darkness. She stumbled slightly over a small rock and he took pity, slowing.

“Lucifer,” she said, breathless.

“Wait,” he said, looking up into the sky.

“For?”

He stopped, whirling around to meet her, and she bumped into his chest. “So many questions!” he said, in what she assumed to be an irritated tone, but the smile breaking across his face gave away his true feeling.

“Fine!” she relented, removing her hand from the warmth of his (and it was warm, the night surrounding them having grown quite chilly). She threw her hands in the air. “I give up!”

He nearly bounced on his toes, biting his bottom lip. “Can you feel it?” he asked, his dark eyes glittering in the low light.

She stuck a hand on a hip. “I told you – I give up.”

“C’mon, detective! You feel nothing?”

“I feel cold,” she said, dragging her eyes from his and looking into the landscape.

A small, surprised yelp escaped her lips as Lucifer suddenly wrapped his arms around her, entrapping her in a great bear hug. Her face smushed against his chest, she mumbled his name in protest, but he just sighed heavily.

It wasn’t… unpleasant, certainly.

The warmth from him, of course, but that other warmth – the kind that built itself in her chest, blowing an ember of caring back into a roaring fire as he rubbed absently at her back, staring straight up. She realized he had been speaking to her the whole time, but she hadn’t been paying attention.

Maybe it was simply that his words were muffled by his suit.

Yeah, that had to be it.

“… poor Maze, she always kicks me out just before this,” he said, still breathless, and she realized it couldn’t still be from the short travel out deeper into the middle of nowhere. “Says I’m a Devil to be around,” he joked, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she had snaked her arms around his waist.

“Aren’t you always?” she teased, and he looked down.

Her nose brushed his and she thought, for less than a moment, that he made to kiss her.

Not that it would be entirely unwelcome.

But no, he did something more unexpected.

He brushed the tip of her nose with his in a small Eskimo kiss, pulling away to look back up at the sky.

She stilled, stunned, and he tugged her impossibly closer. She responded with a small _oof_ as her chin collided back with his chest, but she didn’t mind.

She turned to follow his gaze but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“Before what?” she asked.

She laughed as he whirled her around, still tightly within his embrace. He leaned to speak low in her ear, as though he were sharing a secret with her in a crowded room.

“I’m still the light bringer, darling,” he started, his breath ghosting against her ear. She suppressed a shiver, blaming it on the cold, but he was warming her back and she was pleasantly, contently, warm. “The power builds, whether I choose to use it or not,” he continued to explain.

Just this once…

Just this once, she closed her eyes, and decided to believe him.

“… so I set up a system,” he continued, then faltered to a stop.

She waited, but nothing more came.

 _He's being shy,_ she realized with a start. It made the warmth in her chest grow, and she tilted her head back to lean against his shoulder. He brushed his nose against her cheek.

“Every few years I allow it to dispel on its own,” he began again.

“Sounds very scientific," she said, smiling. She covered his hands, cupped around her upper arms, with her own.

“Beatific, to be more precise,” he corrected, straightening. She missed the warmth immediately, and turned to see him, staring up at the sky.

“That’s why Maze kicks you out?” she asked, but the question went unanswered.

Lucifer took in a deep breath, eyes closed and head tilted up, rubbing the palms of his hands together as though he were cold.

He stilled, then met her eyes.

She exhaled in shock.

His eyes were a bright, flaming white, reflecting as though he were some sort of nocturnal animal.

“Ready?” he asked.

She may have nodded.

He opened his hands and brought his gaze back to the dark night. She stepped back and watched him smile, stuck by how completely unweighted he looked, how completely in his element he appeared, how light and young and _damn happy_ he looked.

She dragged her eyes further up.

Stars were falling.

Hundreds of them, blazing across the night sky, streaking in white and orange and yellow bands, all falling at the same angle and direction.

Before she realized, Lucifer had taken up at her side, watching her amazed expression on her face with a similar one on his, as though she were a sky full of stars.

“Wow,” she breathed, and he laughed, bubbly and joyous and God, how she only ever wanted to hear that laugh from him from now on, instead of the cold, rueful few he usually provided. “That’s amazing.”

Her next breath turned into a squeal as he lifted her off her feet, twirling her around him once in a hug. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, pulling him just as close.

She felt the world around her tilt, just slightly, as though something inside her was shifting in place. “Oh, my God,” she said, and started to pull away.

He held her close, tight, and prayed into her neck. “Don’t be afraid, please,” he whispered.

And, in that moment, she realized – _she wasn’t._

She didn’t even have to convince herself. There was no internal monologue, like when her training kicked in.

Fear was the furthest thing from her mind.

“Not ever,” she said, and he let her pull away until she could put her forehead to his. “Not of you, never.”

She tucked her head back over his shoulder and felt his smile press against her.

“You’re missing it,” he reminded her.

She shook her head and he squeezed her tighter. “No."

She felt a displacement of air across her face, stronger than wind, and something soft and gentle brush against the back of her hand. She opened her eyes and her jaw fell open as Lucifer slowly released her.

“Sorry,” he said, trying to hold in an embarrassed smile as the stepped back, getting a better view of the great, white wings expanding out around him. “Side effect.”

The stars still streaked across the sky, with no sign of letting up.

If anything, there seemed to be more now, brighter and taking longer to fade away.

He gathered himself enough to shrug and tuck the wings back and away, and she immediately missed their light.

But it left Lucifer, standing in front of her, clear as day.

That was better than wings, any day.

“Why?” she asked, and somehow, he knew exactly what she meant.

He shifted a little, staring at the falling stars.

She reached forward and clasped his hand in her own, and he looked back at her then, his eyes reflecting the blackness of space, deep and silent.

“Because you, of all people, deserve to know.”

Something started to slip back into place inside him. She could see the darkness returning, the pressing weight on it, and she squeezed his hand, as though it could hold back the tide flooding back into his being.

“Thank you,” she said, putting as much into each word as she could. She only hoped he could hear it.

He looked at the sandy ground between them and she released his hand, unsure what to do with her own, now.

“Of course,” he said, then ran his hand – the one she had been holding – over the front of his suit jacket, straightening into the figure she more used to, all the loose, lightness faded.

She looked up. A few remaining stars streaked across, until they too faded, spent.

By the time she looked back, Lucifer was already walking away, stiff-backed and slightly unsure over the uneven ground.

“Wait,” she called out, reaching out.

He paused.

“What now?” she asked, her question dissipating into the night, growing colder around her.

He spoke over his shoulder. “I wish I knew,” he said, and continued back toward the car.

“Lucifer,” she called out again, this time rushing forward. She whipped around him, putting her hands up to his chest to stop him. He swallowed, staring at her hands.

 _He's ashamed,_ she realized, unsure if the thoughts were even hers.

The fire inside her flared.

She brought her lips to his in a chaste kiss, warm and dry and far too short.

He breathed out as she pulled away, gazing at her like…

Like she was the angel, here.

She laughed, running her hands down his lapel.

“You’re an idiot,” she said.

A true, small smile eased its way onto his face, and she caught it before he replaced it with a firmer, vexed look. “I have it on very good authority –” he started, but she shook her head, sliding her hand up the back of his neck into his hair and bringing him back to her with a tender kiss.

He tugged her closer, the caress of his lips soft and pliant against hers.

“So what do we do now?” she asked again as they parted, his forehead against hers.

“What do you desire?” he asked.

She shook her head, nearly imperceptible. “What do you?” she asked instead.

He rapidly pulled away from her, clapping his hands together and rubbing them.

The wings unfurled behind him, lighting up their faces in its soft glow. She giggled again, at his enthusiasm.

“Another go?” he said, his eyes already alight.

She couldn’t help the smile he brought from her. “The sky’s all yours, Mr. Morningstar.”

A sly grin on his face, he lifted his gaze back towards the heavens. “Lovely,” he said, buoyant and joyous.

The shower of falling stars that followed could be seen even through the smog and bright lights of L.A., Las Vegas, and beyond.

In the darkness between somewhere and nowhere, the laughter of a fallen angel and a miracle intertwined, fading deep into the light of stars.

 

 

~~ Fanart ~~

 

The lovely Luxxiiee (@luxxiiee on tumblr) made some GORGEOUS fanart for this fic! I am so honored. ~~

 

 

 

~~ My first fanart! I'm so excited and totally blown away! Thank you! ~~

 


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